On May 10th we returned from almost three weeks in Mallorca, somewhere we actually work a bit, and of which we are huge fans so it was great to go back again!

Our trip there this time was two-fold, firstly, we were shooting a short film, something we can’t go into too much detail about just yet but we can say that it is shaping up to be something pretty amazing, at least we think so! There is underwater footage, aerial drone footage, boats and beautiful scenery, science and passion and it’s something we know there are people out there who have been waiting for it so we’re very excited to release it, most likely in or around September so keep an eye out.

We also spent a couple of days making a short promo video for a new company on the island, Yacht Scuba Safety. Yacht Scuba Safety specialise in providing operations training on luxury Superyachts which offer, or want to start offering, SCUBA Diving services to clients. This meant having to endure two days aboard the beautiful and obscenely luxurious M/V Roma, a 68m Superyacht based in Palma which, as I am sure you can imagine, a very difficult experience!… (Of course I’m joking!)

It was a single camera shoot and presented various challenges, primarily shooting an actual course, as it happened, without having the luxury of setting up shots or doing retakes. It was vital that although we capture the action, we don’t interfere to the detriment of the course. This is not an easy thing to do because of course, you want the best shots but that isn’t always possible. The light was also something we needed to consider as it is incredibly bright throughout the day time and on a structure like a Superyacht, with various levels, poles, rails, flags etc on every turn, shadows are a real issue so shooting around those was also something we had to address.

There is also the issue of keeping the camera as steady as possible when shooting from the Tender (a small inflatable RIB) because without a gyro or Steadicam, the slightest of chop will create major stability issues and those shots will be unusable.

We had two days to capture the course in full, including underwater footage, which we would then have to distill down into an easy to digest promo. We also helped script the voice over to best describe the company’s ethos and service and we think we’ve done a pretty good job!

The promo was shot on Canon 7D using a 15-85mmEF-S, 50mm 1.8 and the 10-22mm EF-S. Underwater sequences were shot with the 7D in the Nauticam NA-7D housing. The piece was edited in Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 and graded using Da Vinci Resolve.

Thanks to Janusz Walinski and all the crew of the M/V Roma for their hospitality, warmth and professionalism throughout!